WRITE NOW (1) -- MAKING A START

WRITE NOW (1) -- Making a Start

“The scariest moment is always just before you start.”

(Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft)

S

o, you want to be a writer. That is a noble ambition. I wish you every success. What does it mean to be a writer? Where should you start? Well, I hope these blogs will help you to explore, test and develop your gift. Is writing an innate gift or is it a craft that you can learn? I believe it can be both/either. 

Are you hoping to make a career out of writing or are you pursuing an artistic aspiration, knowing, like most artists, that you may not be able to make a living from your work? Only you can answer these questions. Whatever your motive(s), I think that if you set out writing for fun you will not be disappointed. However, if your desire to become a professional writer is uppermost I feel obliged to at least caution that you may find that goal more difficult to achieve.

Maybe writing a novel is on your bucket list and you see the fulfilment of that dream as sufficient in itself. This is achievable. Maybe you want to become rich and famous. This cannot be guaranteed. Most writers have to work at other jobs to earn a livelihood.  

In the achievement of anything there are several stages in our thought processes. We begin with pre-contemplation. This is like a thought somewhere in the recesses of you mind that someday you would like to write a novel. We move from there to contemplation. This is actually thinking it through and having that thought developing and come into sharper focus. From there we move to decision. This is where we have made up our minds about it and say, “I’m going to do it.” From there we move to action. This is where we actually begin the project. You alone know where you are in this process. If you make the decision and begin the action there is always the possibility that you will relapse. Don’t worry about this. You can always begin again at the decision or action stage.

Writing is a discipline. I have met many barflies who aspire to be writers. They seem to be on the contemplation-decision-action-relapse circuit for a long time. The only way to break out of this loop is to actually sit at your desk (if you have a desk), with your computer (you have to have this tool) and write. It might seem so obvious that it is not necessary to state it but in reality it needs to be said.

The writer’s approach to life

       As you aspire to be a writer you should view life itself as a writer would. All experiences, whether your own or those of other people (happy, sad, frustrating, tragic) should be examined as potential material for you to use. It is valuable to note down these experiences, good and bad and all the facets of human emotions for future use. These notes should be filed in a way that makes them easy to retrieve as needed.

       In order to make the most of what is happening around you try to use all your senses. Nothing should escape your keen observation and scrutiny. You should become an enquiring person. Ask yourself questions about why things are being done, the background to events, and the circumstances that surround them. And the reactions of those involved as well as observers. There are ideas for articles and stories all around if you can recognise them. Writers must train themselves to make mental notes of what untrained observers would miss in the everyday ordinary events of life. What is important is the ability to analyse an incident for use in your fiction.

Developing your imagination

       The keener your observation of the world, the more this will help develop your imagination. Once you develop the habit you will automatically see potential material that previously passed you by. If you are making notes about people be discreet as somebody might get the wrong impression of your intentions and that could be rather embarrassing.

       Imagine you are a journalist with a column to fill each weekday. Walk down the main street of your home town or village and observe the passing scene. Next go in to a café, a pub or park and note your observations. When you get home write a paragraph about something you saw while walking down the street. Make your description as interesting as you can. It can be about some building of outstanding architectural or historic merit, a new shop just opened or friends meeting and greeting on the street – anything that grabs your attention. Write a factual description of someone you saw. What was the colour of their hair and eyes? Were they fat, thin or average build? How were they dressed? What kind of opinion did you form about them? Would you be able to give a forensic description of them to the police? The purpose of doing this is to develop your powers of observation. There is something unique about even the most ordinary person. It is the writer’s task to spot it and to convert it into text that will be interesting to a reader.

       We meet and talk to people of all ages and from all walks of life. Think about this. Choose one such person and base a mini story on or around him. Tell what happened and why and the outcome. Listen with more concentration to the conversations of friends, relatives and acquaintances and a story will likely become obvious. Names and some circumstances should be changed but the general theme can be retained. If you are overly concerned about using your friends and family as fodder for your writing material then you might not have what it takes to be a writer. It’s not about betraying confidences – you should never do that – it’s about gleaning useful material. The people who provide the inspiration may not read your work or if they do they might not recognise themselves in it. If they do recognise themselves they may be flattered to have been a source of inspiration, if they are not presented in a negative light.

       If no obvious story emerges from your observation invent one. Take any simple set of circumstances you see; for example, two smiling young women going into a pub for a lunch time drink. Why are they so happy? What is the story behind their smiles? Try to think of stories to explain everyday things you see around you. Give your imagination full rein and you will probably surprise yourself at how inventive you can be. Even if you don’t come up with some cracking good stories you will still have a lot of fun thinking this way – whilst at the same time developing your imagination and honing you craft.

       At this stage you are not trying to produce something of publishable standard. The objective has been achieved if your capacity to observe and be analytical has been improved - though this writing should also help to develop your powers of expression. Later on you may be able to use the writing you have done in these exercises in your fiction manuscript. No writing is ever really wasted. It can nearly always be used somewhere, sometime.

©Kieran Beville